Top 10 Tips And Tricks For Making Your Stuff Last Longer

We live in a disposable world, but just because things weren’t meant to last doesn’t mean you can’t make them last. These 10 tips and tricks will help you squeeze more life from your batteries, appliances, flowers, razor blades and more.

10. Get more life from your appliances

If you’re lucky, a good appliance can last you for years and years. If not, you’ll be making those not-so-fun-but-very-expensive purchases way more regularly than you care to. Increase your chances of keeping those appliances around longer by knowing how to properly care for them. We’ve highlighted tips for proper refrigerator care and vacuum maintenance, and did you know that washing the lint filter in your dryer (not just cleaning it out) will increase its life? Photo by swanksalot.

9. Extend the life of your fresh cut flowers

Fresh flowers are a tough buy: They look great and add all kinds of life to a room, but they can also die extremely quickly. With the right water solution (think parts sugar, bleach, and citrus), your fresh cut flowers can last a lot longer. Photo by amiefedora.

8. Make your clothes last longer

Your clothes are way too expensive to be disposable, and besides—that favourite t-shirt isn’t going to keep holes out of itself after its thousandth wash. Personal finance blog Wisebread rounds up a ton of tips for making your clothes last longer, including washing everything in cold water. In addition to your clothes lasting longer, you’ll also save a ton on your energy bills. Photo by jon_a_ross. (Original post)

6. Stretch the life of your laptop battery

If you’re not looking to entirely resurrect your batteries but just want to improve how long your laptop lasts between charges, you’ve got all kinds of options. Windows 7 users can try previously mentionedAerofoil to disable Aero graphics and other battery-sucking features when you unplug, and you can always stick the the simple tried-and-true methods like powering down your display’s brightness, turning off unused devices (like BlueTooth), and disabling all those startup items. It’s also a good idea to occasionally calibrate your battery, and if you’re unsure whether or not it’s better for your battery to keep your laptop plugged in, just remember: When in doubt, unplug your laptop regularly. Photo by candescent.

5. Run Windows 7 longer without activation

Windows 7 is already insanely popular considering how new it is and how slow users were to upgrade to Vista, but if you’re taking Windows 7 for a test spin and aren’t quite sure you’re ready to pony up for a licence, you can extend Windows 7’s activation period by 120 days (that’s four whole months) using the same rearm code that worked with Vista. (Original post)